Tonight is the last Sunday of Advent and I am sitting here thinking of one thing: The response that Mary gave Gabriel.
Luke recounts the foretelling of the arrival of Christ. An Angel that we now know as Gabriel announced to Mary that she would conceive a child. Now it would not be unfair to say that the presence of an angel and the news he brought was met with some trepidation.
Mary, according to some apocryphal texts, and even some Jewish traditions state that she was probably 12-16 years old--which is a societal norm for the time. Many state that Joseph had already been married, was a widower and had children. However, we really don't know if that is true or not, so it does not matter for this article.
But what really sticks out in my mind as I look at this story is Mary's response.
Luke 1:34: Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ Then after Gabriel explains, Mary said in verse 38, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’
The first question Mary asks is "How?" she doesn't say "Oh, no Angel boy, you got the wrong gal!" or may excuses, she literally says "how can this be?" Mary hadn't known a man sexually. She was betrothed to be married, but was still living in her father's home. Had she been sexually active he would have shunned her.
There is a lesson to be learned here.
When God shows us his will for our lives, even though we don't know how it will happen, all we have to do is say "how?" Often times we have our own plans for our lives. We know what we want, but we don't always know how to get to that point. In fact, as Tiffany Lyons says "Sometimes God moves us in a direction we didn’t see coming. It is at these times that we need to know what our answer is going to be. Are we going to say yes to God or not. I believe that Mary had a posture of saying yes to God even before this major plot shift happened. Let’s get into a posture of saying yes to God."
Mary believed that God was going to do what he said he was going to do. Just look at the second part of her answer "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ After all, Mary had heard this promise of the Lord, Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." and she believed it too!
My question tonight is are you in a place where if God tells you to do something or that something is going to happen, you are just going to ask "how" and then say "Let it be!"?
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